Manchester United has a chance to
avenge its comprehensive loss to Barcelona in the 2009 Champions
League final after a makeshift side crushed Schalke on Wednesday
with the biggest semifinal win in 22 years.
Anderson's rare double after goals from Antonio Valencia and
Darron Gibson clinched a 4-1 victory to send United through to its
third final in four years, 6-1 on aggregate.
The May 28 showpiece at Wembley will pit Europe's most successful
teams of recent years against each other in a repeat of the 2009
final, which Barca comfortably won 2-0 in Rome.
"Barcelona play extremely good football, it's going to be
difficult," said United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who is likely
to play his last game in the final before retiring.
The two giants of club football are each targeting a fourth
European title. United has reached three finals in four years,
Barcelona three in six.
Van der Sar was in the side that produced United's third European
title against Chelsea on penalty kicks in 2008 before they were
outclassed a year later.
"We have to make sure we learned our lesson from (two years
ago), be better prepared and deal with them in a different way,"
Van der Sar said. "Hopefully it'll be a better outcome."
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was at Old Trafford on Wednesday,
but few of the players likely to face the Spanish champions at
Wembley were in action.
As the Premier League leaders prepare for Sunday's match against
second-place Chelsea, just three players - including Van der Sar -
were retained from the side that lost at Arsenal at the weekend.
A victory against Chelsea will virtually assure United a record
19th English title, but the London side can go top with a win.
With that in mind, United manager Alex Ferguson left Wayne Rooney
and Rio Ferdinand out completely, while Ryan Giggs, Nemanja Vidic
and Patrice Evra sat on the bench.
"I didn't sleep last night thinking about it," Ferguson said of
his team selection. "They did me proud."
United only had one brief scare when Jose Manuel Jurado scored
for Schalke. By then, though, United had already stormed into a
two-goal lead on the night.
"Wembley here we come," Rooney wrote on Twitter. "Looking
forward to Sunday now. Big result needed."
Darron Gibson was among those brought into the United side and he
sprayed the ball forward to Valencia with pinpoint precision before
the winger clipped the ball past Manuel Neuer in the 26th minute.
Gibson was on the scoresheet himself five minutes later after a
blunder that defied Neuer's current standing as one of Europe's most
sought-after goalkeepers.
Neuer allowed Gibson's strike from the edge of the penalty area
to slip through his gloves into the net.
Just when United was cruising, though, a sloppy pass from Chris
Smalling gave the visitors a lifeline, with Jose Manuel Jurado
scoring for Schalke.
There was a brief delay in the match as attention was averted to
the high seating behind the opposite goal where Schalke fans clashed
with the United stewards, let off flares and ripped up netting.
But the situation soon calmed down as United was completely in
the ascendancy in one of the easiest matches it has played all
season.
Anderson was first denied by Neuer's fingertip save but he ended
the night by taking his United tally to four since arriving in 2007,
having only scored twice in 125 appearances before Wednesday.
Nani darted down the right and cut the ball back to the
Brazilian, who resisted Atsuto Uchida's challenge and wriggled into
space to net in the 72nd.
Again the right flank was the weak point, with Dimitar Berbatov
surging forward and squaring to the feet of Anderson, who tapped
into the net.
It gave United the biggest victory in a European Cup semifinal
since AC Milan beat Real Madrid 6-1 over two legs in the 1988-89
season.
Now United will be returning to Wembley for a continental final
for the first time since beating Benfica in 1968 to win its first
European Cup. The second was won in Barcelona in 1999 by beating
Bayern Munich.
